Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of Heavy and Trace Metals in Surface Soil Nearby an Oil Refinery, Saudi Arabia, Using Geoaccumulation and Pollution Indices

  • Published:
Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The present study deals with the measurement of heavy and trace metals in the soils of Ras Tanura city nearby one of the oldest and largest oil refineries located on Arabian Gulf, eastern Saudi Arabia. Metals were analyzed in 34 surface soil samples using plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICPE-9820). The result showed that the mean values of the metals concentrations were in the order: Cd > Mo > Tb > Ce > Hf > Eu > Yb > U > Sm > Rb > Cr > Ni > Pb > Sc > Cs > Zn > Lu > Co. The mean values of Cd (39.9 mg/kg), Mo (13.2 mg/kg), Eu (4.01 mg/kg), Hf (6.09 mg/kg), Tb (8.23 mg/kg), and Yb (3.88) in soil samples were higher than the background values in soil and the world average. The obtained results indicated to elevated levels of Cd and Mo in most samples, with mean concentrations exceeded the background levels by 113 times for Cd and 5 times for Mo. Pollution index (PI) and Geoaccumulation (Igeo) for each metal were calculated to assess the metal contamination level of surface soil in the study area. The assessment results of PI and Igeo revealed a significant pollution by Cd, Mo, Eu, Hf, Tb, and Yb in most of sampling sites nearby Ras Tanura refinery.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdel Halim MAK, El-Taher A (2014) Elemental analysis of soils from Toshkiby using instrumental neutron activation analysis techniques. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 300:431–435

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ajayi TR, Torto N, Tchokossa P, Akinlua A (2009) Natural radioactivity and trace metals in crude oils: implication for health. Environ Geochem Health 31:61–69

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Abdali F, Massoud MS, Al-Ghadban AN (1996) Bottom sediments of the Arabian gulf-III. Trace metal contents as indicators of pollution and implications for the effect and fate of the Kuwait oil slick. Environ Pollut 93(3):285–301

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Dabbas MA, Ali LA, Afaj AH (2015a) Determination of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in soil and in the leaves of plant (Eucalyptus) of selected locations at Kirkuk—Iraq. Arab J Geosci 8:3743–3753

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Dabbas MA, Ali LA, Afaj AH (2015b) Comparison of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metal concentrations in soil and leaves of eucalyptus plants at Kirkuk, Iraq. Arab J Geosci 8:4755–4763

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Almasoud FI, Usman AR, Al-Farraj AS (2015) Heavy metals in the soils of the Arabian Gulf coast affected by industrial activities: analysis and assessment using enrichment factor and multivariate analysis. Arab J Geosci 8(3):1691–1703

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alshahri F (2017) Heavy metal contamination in sand and sediments near to disposal site of reject brine from desalination plant, Arabian Gulf: assessment of environmental pollution. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:1821–1831

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Wabel MI, Sallam AS, Usman ARA, Ahmad M, El-Naggar AH, El-Saeid MH, Al-Faraj A, El-Enazi K, Al-Romian FA (2017) Trace metal levels, sources, and ecological risk assessment in a densely agricultural area from Saudi Arabia. Environ Monit Assess 189:252

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Atagana HI (2011) Bioremediation of co-contamination of crude oil and heavy metals in soil by phytoremediation using Chromolaena odorata (L.) King and H.E. Robinson. Water Air Soil Pollut 215:261–271

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Benhaddya ML, Hadjel M (2014) Spatial distribution and contamination assessment of heavy metals in surface soils of Hassi Messaoud, Algeria. Environ Earth Sci 71(3):1473–1486

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bettmer J, Heilmann J, Kutscher DJ, Sanz-Medel A, Heumann KG (2012) Direct μ-flow injection isotope dilution ICP-MS for the determination of heavy metals in oil samples. Anal Bioanal Chem 402:269–275

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birch GF, Vanderhayden M, Olmos M (2011) The natural and distribution of metals in soils of the Sydney Estuary Catchment, Australia. Water Air Soil Pollut 216:581–604

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen HJM (1979) The environmental chemistry of the elements. Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai C, Xiong B, Zhang Y, Li X, Nunes LM (2015) Critical comparison of soil pollution indices for assessing contamination with toxic metals. Water Air Soil Pollut 226:352

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Christoforidis A, Stamatis N (2009) Heavy metal contamination in street dust and roadside soil along the major national road in Kavala’s region, Greece. Geoderma 151:257–263

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • El-Taher A (2010a) Determination of chromium and trace elements in El-Rubshi chromite from eastern desert Egypt by neutron activation analysis. Appl Radiat Isot 68:1864–1868

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • El-Taher A (2010b) Elemental content of feldspar from eastern desert, Egypt, determined by INAA and XRF. Appl Radiat Isot 68:1185–1188

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • El-Taher A, Abdel Halim MAK (2014) Elemental analysis of limestone by instrumental neutron activation analysis. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 299:1949–1953

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • El-Taher A, Garcia-Tenorio R, Khater AEM (2016) Ecological impacts of Al-Jalamid phosphate mining, Saudi Arabia: soil elemental characterization and spatial distribution with INAA. Appl Radiat Isot 107:382–390

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guagliardi I, Cicchella D, De Rosa R (2012) A Geostatistical approach to assess concentration and spatial distribution of heavy metals in urban soils. Water Air Soil Pollut 223:5983–5998

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guler C, Alpaslan M, Kurt MA, Temel A (2010) Deciphering factors controlling trace element distribution in the soils of Karaduvar industrial–agricultural area (Mersin, SE Turkey). Environ Earth Sci 60:203–218

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hardaway C, Sneddon J, Beck JN (2004) Determination of metals in crude oil by spectroscopy. Anal Lett 37(14):2881–2899

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hasayen KA, Al-Osaimi BH, Aljohany AM, Al-Jawdah HM (2017) Spatial distribution of heavy metals in water, soil and anurans’ livers from Al-Hayr area-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. J Environ Biol 38:231–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarzyńska G, Falandysz J (2012) Trace elements profile of Slate Bolete (Leccinum duriusculum) mushroom and associated upper soil horizon. J Geochem Explor 121:69–75

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jasmine J, Mukherji S (2015) Characterization of oily sludge from a refinery and biodegradability assessment using various hydrocarbon degrading strains and reconstituted consortia. J Environ Manag 149:118–125

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kabata-Pendias A (2010) Trace elements in soils and plants, 4th edn. CRC Press, New York, p 548

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Khalilova HKh (2015) The impact of oil contamination on soil ecosystem. J Biol Chem Res 2(3):133–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalilova H, Mammadov V (2016) Assessing the anthropogenic impact on heavy metal pollution of soils and sediments in urban areas of Azerbaijan’s oil industrial region. Pol J Environ Stud 25(1):159–166

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim HK, Jang TI, Kim SM, Park SW (2015) Impact of domestic wastewater irrigation on heavy metal contamination in soil and vegetables. Environ Earth Sci 73(5):2377–2383

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lv J, Liu Y, Zhang Z, Dai J, Dai B, Zhu Y (2015) Identifying the origins and spatial distributions of heavy metals in soils of Ju country (Eastern China) using multivariate and geostatistical approach. J Soils Sedim 15:163–178

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marín JA, Moreno JL, Hernandez T, García C (2006) Bioremediation by composting of heavy oil refinery sludge in semiarid conditions. Biodegradation 17:251–261

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nwaichi EO, Wegwu MO, Nwosu UL (2014) Distribution of selected carcinogenic hydrocarbon and heavy metals in an oil-polluted agriculture zone. Environ Monit Assess 186:8697–8706

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ogoyi DO, Mwita CJ, Nguu EK, Shiundu PM (2011) Determination of heavy metal content in water, sediment and microalgae from Lake Victoria, East Africa. Open Environ Eng J 4:156–161

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman SH, Khanam D, Adyel TM, Islam MS, Ahsan MA, Akbor MA (2012) Assessment of heavy metal contamination of agricultural soil around Dhaka export processing zone (DEPZ), Bangladesh: implication of seasonal variation and indices. Appl Sci 2:584–601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinecke AJ, van Wyk Mia, Reinecke SA (2016) The Influence of soil characteristics on the toxicity of oil refinery waste for the springtail Folsomia candida (Collembola). Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 96:804–809

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S, Ghosh BP, Sil AK, Saha T (2011) Heavy metal pollution assessment through comparison of different indices in sewage-fed fishery pond sediments at East Kolkata Wetland, India. Environ Earth Sci 63:915–924

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari JN, Chaturvedi P, Ansari NG, Patel DK, Jain SK, Murthy RC (2011) Assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals in the vicinity of an oil refinery in India. Soil Sedim Contam 20:315–328

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tripathee L, Kang S, Rupakheti D, Zhang Q, Bajracharya RM, Sharma CM, Huang J, Gyawali A, Paudyal R, Sillanpaa M (2016) Spatial distribution, sources and risk assessment of potentially toxic trace elements and rare earth elements in soils of the Langtang Himalaya, Nepal. Environ Earth Sci 75:1332

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Turekian KK, Wedepohl KH (1961) Distribution of the elements in some major units of the Earth’s Crust. Geol Soc Am Bull 72:175–192

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Venkateswar Reddy M, Prathima Devi M, Chandrasekhar K, Kannaiah Goud R, Venkata Mohan S (2011) Aerobic remediation of petroleum sludge through soil supplementation: microbial community analysis. J Hazard Mater 197:80–87

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zevenhoven R, Kilpinen P (2001) Control of pollutants in flue gases and fuel gases. Report TKK-ENY-4. June 2001, 1Ed.Espoo

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Environmental Research Laboratory at the College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. Great thanks are extended to all students and research team from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University for assistance in sampling. The authors are grateful to Nora Alnaim for assistance in the analytical procedure. Finally, the authors thank the Associate Editor and all the reviewers for their valuable comments, which have contributed to the improvement of our manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P. O. Box 1982, Dammam, 31441, Saudi Arabia

    Fatimh Alshahri

  2. Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assuit, 71452, Egypt

    A. El-Taher

Authors
  1. Fatimh Alshahri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. El-Taher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fatimh Alshahri.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 21 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOCX 20 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alshahri, F., El-Taher, A. Assessment of Heavy and Trace Metals in Surface Soil Nearby an Oil Refinery, Saudi Arabia, Using Geoaccumulation and Pollution Indices. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 75, 390–401 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-018-0531-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-018-0531-0

Search

Navigation